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A Song Without You in It
I’m not gonna write about
how I used to feel
when you’d reach out to me
won’t write about what used to be
I’m not gonna sing anymore about
love that’s grown old
remembered smiles and laughter
and happy ever after
I’m gonna show to the world
I can write a song without you in it
it’s way past time to begin it
I’m gonna put in someone else’s name
no one’ll know
who’s to bless or who’s to blame
gotta stop wasting time
gotta stop spending all my lyrics on you
I’m not gonna think about
the things we used to do
all the times we’ve had together
the love I thought would last forever
I guess that it’s plain to see
I’m just your basic fool
and I can’t feel the things I say
but I’ve gotta find some way
I’m gonna show to the world
I can write a song without you in it
it’s way past time to begin it
I’m gonna put in someone else’s name
no one’ll know
who’s to bless or who’s to blame
gotta stop wasting time
gotta stop spending all my lyrics on you
so get out of this harmony
get out of this melody
I just want to sing a song of my own
I’m gonna show to the world
I can write a song without you in it
it’s way past time to begin it
I’m gonna put in someone else’s name
no one’ll know
who’s to bless or who’s to blame
gotta stop wasting time
gotta stop spending all my lyrics on you
I’m gonna put in someone else’s name
no one’ll know
who’s to bless or who’s to blame
gotta stop wasting time
gotta stop spending all my lyrics on you
Reviews
Bittersweet… a song about stopping doing something that can’t be stopped. You know that we made a connection years ago that endures and it’s from that connection that your songs continue to resonate with me even now. I’m grateful for your friendship and for how you let your heart speak through and in your songs. —John K.
So is Doug trying to tell us something —JoAnn W. [ed.: Ha-ha]
Well done, Doug. You are very talented. —David B. W.
2020 Notes
When hopes are dashed, life goes on, whether you want it to or not. As Emily Dickinson wrote, “After great pain, a formal feeling comes— …the Feet, mechanical, go round—” And sooner or later you’re going to have to figure out what your song will sound like in the “new normal.”
I have so many amazing memories of Solid Sound studios in Ann Arbor, Michigan. So many recording sessions! The engineers—Rob and Willard were usually handling that end of things—the musicians, the atmosphere, it was all awesome! We remixed the Singer album there, recorded vocals and remixed the Hinds’ Feet on High Places album, and recorded and mixed the whole Truth project, as well as participating in various roles for countless ads, TV and radio commercials, auto shows, video soundtracks, custom albums, you name it.
Once when the guys had just bought a fancy new mixing board, they offered me some free recording time so they could get familiar with it, and you better believe I jumped at the chance! Rob played bass, Kenny Michalik played drums, and we hired some string players, too.
I recorded five pop song demos that were percolating in me at the time, hoping they might be of interest to a few publishers I was going to visit on an upcoming New York trip. Nothing much came of that little expedition, and the demo tape’s just been hanging around disintegrating since then. “Kiss the Old Romantic” was on that, and I finally finished that up about a year ago. Another song on that demo was this one.
Hope you like it, and be sure to pay special attention to my fabulous, live-in backing group, David Glaser! (Thank you so much, Davey!) And I won’t mind if you smile a bit at my all-too-obvious protesteth-too-much plan to do something I’ve never been very good at—letting go and moving on. What I really ended up doing, as you’ll see, was exactly what I said I wasn’t going to do: writing yet another song about “you.”
Oh, well… Not the first time. Not the last. It seems that as long as this heart keeps beating, there’s no end of the trouble it can get itself into.
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